Part two – Van Walls

After the main frame and flooring was added, we tackled the walls. It’s not exactly the most exciting part but having walls allowed us to take it for a nice overnight test drive near Rocky Mountain National Park. It definitely added a homier feel to the van.

We didn’t want something dark or difficult to install so we walked around Home Depot/Lowes and reviewed a few options until we settled on a white hardboard. The type that is brown on the reverse side… It’s cost effective, light and easy to cut and install.

Size and trim

Thankfully, most of the walls were square so it was fairly easy to prep. For the rounded corner near the driver’s seat, I’ve made a template out of construction paper and traced it back on the panel and used a jigsaw to cut it. The sliding door had a small area that continued onto the back wall, so we had to measure and trim those as well.

We aren’t going to cover the back and sliding doors for now as we’ll be installing windows so that’s ‘on hold’. The ceiling also did not receive any treatment. We’ll leave it bare until we decide what’s the best option to cover it while retaining the head room for Bryan.

Installation

Once the right cuts were made, the installation was simple. Bryan held the boards in place and I drove the screws into each panels right into the frame we’ve built. We had a lot of ‘Blue Jeans’ insulation left so we filled up the holes behind the panels. We didn’t really need more but that way, the leftover insulation didn’t go to waste.

The lower half of the walls was pieced up together and doesn’t look as sharp as the upper half which, for us, is completely fine. The furniture will cover those imperfections.

Finishing

Our panels had a brown backing and using a jigsaw made the edge flare up and it looked messy. We decided to buy plastic trims to make smooth transition between each panels and at the exposed edges. The final result, despite using cheaper materials, looks the part! We have walls. 🙂 We’ll be using plastic head screw covers to hide the screw holes we’ve made but that’s all part of the finishing touches.

That’s about it for the walls. It took about an afternoon to get everything cut and installed.